Half Life: Stasis
by El Macco
Summary: The story of Shepards return from stasis. Mostly corresponds with the events of 'HalfLife 2'.Rated T for violence and rare mild swearing.
1. Chapter 1

Half-life: Stasis

Disclaimer: I do now own any of the characters,events or locations from 'Half-life' or 'Half-life 2', they are properties of Valve.

Author notes: I will not name the Combine by that name in Chapter 1, as Shepard does not know that name that. Please review, will gladly read any comments and constuctive critisism.

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Chapter 1.

Stasis is cold. It felt like he had been there for an eternity. An eternity of boredom and torture.

The very soul of the man had been wasted away, he could no longer feel. His mind was deluded, and created monsters from his past. The memories of Black Mesa still consumed him, and caused him to think insane thoughts.

And now, he was staring into the eyes of the one who put him there. That one, mysterious being, who stalked him through the last days of his life. The one he saw at every turn, but could never speak to or touch, or kill.

"Wake up, Mr Shepard. Oh, don't give me that look, if it weren't for me, you would have been killed long ago." He explained

He continued; "For i saw a use for you. We could foresee ...Problems in which you could aid us with. And of course, we were correct, and now, your time of worth has come. You will soon see what has become of your earth. It has changed since you last saw it."

"We're sure you'll manage though"

As he said that, the stars started to warp, and blur past him. The stars that he had been staring at all the time he had been there. Soon, they were lines in the black sky as they formed into a cage, then walls, doors and windows of a tram.

He looked over to see a man, with his head in his hands, sat on the tram seat. He failed to notice any of his features, as this was the first human he had seen for that eternity. Shepards eyes widened as he the scales fell from his eyes. He was back, back on earth, or what he thought was earth. The tram was loud, and sounded in need of repair. The interior was filthy and disgusting.

The tram rocked violently making Shepard loose his balance, so he grabbed hold of rusty bar to his right. The feeling caused him pain, the pain spread to his legs, head and the rest of his body. He hadn't felt anything ,and he hadn't stood on his own legs in what seemed like a life-time. His chest started hurting as his heart and lungs started to function properly again, and his eyes burnt.

He fell on the red seat next to him, causing the bones in his back and his leg joints to hurt. His fingers cracked as he moved them. This was the first pain he'd felt since before stasis, and hence it felt like the worst pain in all his life. He ground his teeth, trying not to curse in pain, attracting attention to himself was something he'd never wanted to do, it wasn't in his personality.

After he had recouped from the pain, he realised the train was slowing. Out side the train he saw burned out buildings and destroyed cars, and obvious signs of conflict, such as scorching and craters on the roads. Old dead grass and vegetation covered small corners of the roads. Though, the most prominent thing he noticed was rubble spewed across the roads, consisting of bricks, mortar and other various materials. There was a huge amount of it, most of it seemed to have been moved to the sides of the roads, probably so the road could still be used.

Shepard was puzzled by this sight, were was he? There's no way he was in America, this is nothing of what he could remember. But, how long had he been in 'stasis'? What year is this? Shepard started looking at the remains of buildings. For what he thought, they looked Eastern Europion in design. _Germany maybe, who knows._ Shepard thought.

The tram was suddenly pitched in darkness, making Shepard jolt away from the window in surprise. The tram moved into a large room, which was also grimy and covered in dirt. The tram suddenly stopped making Shepard slightly loose balance in his seat. A large door towards the front of the cart he was in opened, and the two other people stood up to exit. Shepard thought it best to follow, but not knowing what to expect moved slowly. It's then when he noticed he was in navy blue overalls, and looked down to his legs and feet. Through the tram door was the large room, which turned into another room to the left.

Shepard looked to his right to study the room, there was another man in blue overalls as well, sat on a large bench, who looked up at Shepard when he realised he was there. There was an old wooden door, on the other side of the room, which looked like it would have been from when this building was originally built. But now looked out of place with what the rest of the room looked like. The room was empty on the left, apart from a small water fountain on the wall, and a tall wire fence creating a wall from the next room. Shepard walked to the fountain, as his mouth was dry, he couldn't remember the last time he had drank anything. The fountain was metal, and looked old, and dirty. He turned the tap on, a little trickle of water came through, thankfully the water didn't seem too dirty, it was still clear at least. He cupped his hands and brought some water to his mouth. It was refreshing, but it tasted quite odd, not like he remembered.

Shepard turned around and leant on the wall next to the fountain, he saw the others from the tram had gone through a small gate in the fence. After a few seconds of thought, he decided to follow them again, and walked towards it. He stepped through, and stopped to see where he was now.

"Move citizen." An authoritarian voice said from his right.

The voice was hard to understand, as if it was through a radio.

Shepard quietly replied with "Pardon?"

This simple question was replied with by a forceful punch in the side of his ribs,knocking him into the wall to his left.

Shepard rested his head on the wall for a second or two, to wait for it to stop hurting, then turned around to see who had attacked him. He saw a strange dark figure, who was tall and looked strong. He was wearing a white mask, which looked somewhat like a skull. He pulled out a batten from the back of his belt, and held it as if he would hit him with it.

Shepard moved away from him further away from the fence holding his ribs quickly. The one who attacked him crossed his arms and moved back to where he was before, into the shadow of the wall. He could still feel that hurt from that punch, but he couldn't understand why he got hit. This whole place stunk of hostility.

The end of the corridor lead to a huge room, which looked like a platform for more trams. There was one red freighter parked on the rail furthest away, The tram lead out of the building to a huge opening to the right, were the trams would enter. Outside, was mainly grass and grey soil, Shepard notices a huge black wall, which the rail lead through. Shepard must have missed this when he was coming on the tram.

The floor was made of concrete slabs, and was covered in litter. The actual walls of this building was more like a hangar, made of sheet metal. It seemed to have been added onto the rest of the station at a later time of it being built. There was yet more high wire fence on the other side, leading through to another room.

Shepard quickly made his way there, but slowed when he noticed there were more of those soldier types. They turned their heads to looks at him, then turned back as they were, as if they didn't care.

Shepard now walked to the wire fence, trying to open the wire door. It was locked by a large pad-lock. One of the troops noticed him trying to open it, and walked over to him.

"Follow me." the soldier ordered. Shepard didn't want another beating so he did what he said. He followed him into a small dark room. It was empty apart from an old wooden desk in the middle, the soldier reached into a drawer and took out a red object, which looked like two red bars connected at one end.

The soldier walked up to Shepard again, "Hold out your hand." he ordered. So Shepard did what he told. The soldier put this object around his hand, and squeezed one end of the devise, making a sharp barb pierce Shepard's hand. Shepard let out a gasp of air from the pain. Then, the soldier places it back in the drawer. Then walked to open the gate.

Through the gate was a rather boring empty room, with the same dirt and muck covering it, there was a large screen which was currently off. Under that was large wooden double door, and since that was the only way to go, that's were Shepard headed. He had to force the door open. But as he did, the sun almost blinded Shepard, rising his hand to cover his eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2.**

Shepard had walked into a large square, the remains of a pattern could be seen on the ground. It was a group of many squares getting smaller towards the middle. The colours were very faded, but some areas of yellow and reds could be made out. Surrounding the square were some old dead trees, which were in front of a few old burnt out buildings. There were a few of those soldiers congregating at the furthest side from Shepard, blocking an opening of what used to be a large grassy area using a huge black and grey 4-wheeled vehicle. A sudden bark from one of the soldiers to the right made Shepard jump. Then demanded he come towards him, so again, he decided it best to do what they want. This soldier was carrying a small hand weapon, nothing Shepard had seen before. It was small and silver, but he didn't have time to stand and examine it. The soldier opened the door next to him and told him to go through to the next checkpoint. The corridor was the same dark filthy room, with lots of paint stripped off, and rubbish in the corners. The glass door at the end of the corridor opened when what appeared to be a camera studied him. This seemed to be the last 'checkpoint' and walked into the large room. There was another of the people he saw on the train, wearing the blue overalls leaning on some rails. In a rare occasion, Shepard opened his mouth to speak.

"Who the hell are these people?" His voice was fairly deep and rough.

"What do you mean? Their the combine. Where have you been the last 20 years? Bastards own the whole god damn city. Maybe the whole earth, 'cause, they keep information from us of course, no idea if the rest of earth even exists." The man's face looked exhausted, but he had a friendly face through it.

"What are the Combine?"

"Have you been living in a cave? They took over after some weird thing happened out in the desert in what used to be America. And they all blame it on this guy called 'Gordon Freeman', but no one's ever seen him in years. Most people say he died in this 'Resonance Cascade' or whatever its called. Of course, there's always some nuts who say he's 'gonna come back and free us or some bullshit like that. Sorry, I'm boring you, what's your name?"

Shepard was in silence, and his eyes were wide staring into nothing. Hearing that name again, filled him with anger. It was his fault of what happened at Black Mesa. But it appears he may be dead.

"You ok man? What's up?... Actually, nevermind. I don't want to know, i got enough of my own problems. Anyway, we gotta get out of here, the combine are starting to get pissed at us being here. You can come back to were I 'live', though i wouldn't call it living."

The two walked onto a road, with some of the Combine troops patrolling. A large building, just a few yards away from the exit of the station, is were this man apparently lived.

"Oh yeah, i never told you my name did I? It's Frank, or Frankie, or whatever the hell you wonna call me." He said whilst opening the door to the apartment building.

The building wasn't as decayed and dirty as the station was. They stepped into a small lift, Frank pressed the '3' button on the pad, and lift rose.

The lift was slow, but eventually made it's way to the 3rd floor with a jolt.

"Come on through, meet some of the other's here, don't worry, there aren't any Combine in these rooms. But be careful, they can quickly make their way here."

Shepard stepped through into a small room and saw two people sat on a couch, and a woman glaring out of the window, who all looked to see who the newcomer was.

Half an hour had passed, when Shepard was sat on an old wooden chair next to a fuzzy T.V. The door bust open, and in came two other citizens carrying another. Who seemed injured, not fatally, but enough so he couldn't walk. But most noticeable was that he wasn't wearing the same as the others. He had a grey form what looked like protection over the dark blue overalls. Then, Shepard noticed the gun he was carrying, when they dragged him to the room behind him. Two others followed, and a conversation could be barely heard through the walls. Eventually, one came out and told the others;

"we've all got to get out of here, Alistair, take them down to the basement and through to the armoury, and give everyone some way of protecting themselves." A woman ordered whilst standing in the doorway.

"Why? What's happened?" Alastair replied.

"I can't explain now, I'll catch up with you later and tell you." Before turning back into the other room.

"Ok, follow me, if you see any combine, don't act suspicious. We've all seen them do it, they find someone who knows too much they wont hesitate to kill them, or worse, they'll be shipped off to Nova Prospect."

"Come on man!" Shouted Frank "If she says something up, then you better worry"

The group of 4 citizens walked calmly to the lift Shepard had taken before. This time, Alastair made the lift go to the basement.

When the lift stopped and opened, they walked into a large dark concrete room.

"Quick, check its clear out there."

One of the men walked to another door. Opened and popped his head out, looked around, and came back in.

"It's clear, open it."

Alastair moved a wooden crate and started touching the wall close to the floor. He found a crack and tried to jolt it out. It took a couple of attempts, it hadn't been opened in some time.

"Quick, crawl through, and wait for me after you get through." Said Frank, as he motioned to Shepard to go in.

Shepard leant down in crawled through the hole. It was mud and rock, and had been dug out by hand. Shepard could see an opening a few metres down. When he got there, the room was empty of people, but had few shelves with more crates on them. The others followed, and started looking through the crates, Shepard stood and watched.

Frank handed Shepard a large red wrench.

"you look pretty strong, could do some real damage with that thing. I'll try find you a pistol or something, know how to use one?" He asked, as he turned around and started searching another box.

The wrench was very heavy, was old with some of the paint peeling off. It was probably used for heavy duty repair of construction.

Alastair turned holding some of the vesting what that other injured man had on.

"Put this on. It's based off what the combine wear, should stop most small arms fire. Or, you could just steal theirs if you figure out how. If your wondering where we're going, I'm plannin' on taken us down to this old warehouse, the combine think its unused, but we got men there. Their the ones that get us all these weapons. And, I think they said they were working on some new type of armour, hell if i know what is it. They say its sort of like that weird orange suit, what Gordon Freeman wears in those photos of him." Rambles Alastair.

Suddenly, a large crack was heard from above. And what sounded like radios blaring away. The group in the hidden armoury all looked up and stopped what they were doing.

More crashing could be heard. Then a gun shot. Then more.

They stopped looking through the crates, and rushed over to an old wooden door.

In all the confusion,Shepard stood there thinking how the 'Combine' hadn't found this yet. The apartment building was full of them. And if this door they are going through would lead straight out into a road, how could they not find it?

Frank saw Shepard with a confused look on his face, and asked;

"What are you doing? they're going to find this room if we're not lucky, so we gotta hurry. When you go through, go down the alley quickly. And watch out for the Headcrabs, the Combine fired one of those headcrab missiles right in the middle."

The talk of headcrabs again made Shepard's heart beat faster, he hated those things. But he remembered Black Mesa being nuked? How could they have survived?

They crept through into the dark alley. It was completely blocked off from the roads.

"We gotta go down into the sewer, then make our way to Raymond's workshop, we'll get more weapons and ammo there." Explained Alastair.

They moved slowly in anticipation for any form of attack. Shepard Gripped the wrench, Frank stood in front of him, with a pistol stretched out in front of him.

Alastair decided to move forward and clear out the rest of the alley, and get to the way into the sewer.

"Right, stay behind but keep moving, it looks clear, ill signal when the sewer is clear."

They moved into small opening in the tunnel, which had a large opening on the floor. Leading to the sewer. It stunk horribly, Frank started chocking, then put his hand over his mouth. Alastair was already down, and signalled up to Frank and Shepard to come down. Shepard didn't really like the idea of jumping down, but he proffered it to getting attacked by one of the Combine. They both dropped down, there was an opening further down the tunnel with a lot of light filling it. The tunnel looked clear, apart from some debree. The three relaxed and started moving down to the exit.

"Hey Alastair, did those guys we left behind get out?" Asked Frank.

"The 2 we left in the armoury said they're gonna wait for the others, and come this way later." he replied.

"uh, right. Just hope they get out Ok"

Alastair froze in mid step, looked down to his feet. The tunnel was suddenly filled with noise and confusion. Shepard, being at the back could not see what was going on.

"Oh crap! Kill it quick!" Frank shouted, and started shooting. The noise of the gun echoed round the tunnel, and sewage was thrown everywhere.


End file.
